Alton aldermen to consider $375k bid for repairs to Summit Street

Linda N. Weller, lweller@civitasmedia.com

Published
12:50 pm CST, Saturday, March 4, 2017

A man walks his dog past the washed out portion of Summit Street in Alton recently, which has had the street closed to traffic for months. City workers have placed a row of sandbags on the outside edge of the fenced-off area to try to keep rain water from eroding the hole even more, which has now claimed three city barricades. The city council will vote next week on the bid to do the repair work on the eroded portion of the street. less

A man walks his dog past the washed out portion of Summit Street in Alton recently, which has had the street closed to traffic for months. City workers have placed a row of sandbags on the outside edge of the ... more

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A man walks his dog past the washed out portion of Summit Street in Alton recently, which has had the street closed to traffic for months. City workers have placed a row of sandbags on the outside edge of the fenced-off area to try to keep rain water from eroding the hole even more, which has now claimed three city barricades. The city council will vote next week on the bid to do the repair work on the eroded portion of the street. less

A man walks his dog past the washed out portion of Summit Street in Alton recently, which has had the street closed to traffic for months. City workers have placed a row of sandbags on the outside edge of the ... more

Alton aldermen to consider $375k bid for repairs to Summit Street

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ALTON — The city may be on the way to rebuilding a sunken portion of Summit Street, along with other related work to preserve that part of Christian Hill’s infrastructure.

Next week, aldermen will consider low bid of $375,000 from RCS Construction of Rosewood Heights for the street, sanitary sewer and storm water sewer project, despite being 20.5 percent above the engineer’s estimate of $311,125.

The other two bids were $451,362.40 (Keeley and Sons of East St. Louis) and $525,572.55 (Kamadulski Excavating of Granite City).

The bid resolution will come before the aldermanic Committee of the Whole on Monday as a recommendation vote. Unless the panel lays over or tables the resolution, it will be up for vote of approval at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

Key to beginning the work is for the city to find money with which to fund the project.

Alton Public Works Director Bob Barnhart said the city would take money from several funds to cover the cost, including sewer and street divisions’ budgets within the Public Works Department.

“We don’t really have the money right now, we will have to cut corners somewhere,” he said. “This is a very important project. We understand the concerns of citizens, but we want to make sure we planned it (project) right. We have an aging infrastructure, it is really taking a toll on our resources.”

Among the work in the 19-part bid is removing the guardrail, curbs and pavement; erection of sheet pile, redi-rock and barrier walls, curbing, 8-inch stamped concrete pavement, storm sewers, trench drain and backfill and exploratory excavation.

The bid does not include replacing missing bricks on the street that runs along the edge of limestone bluffs, which Public Works employees have done in-house in the past. City ordinance requires maintenance and preservation of brickwork on Summit Street between Mill Street and Belleview Avenue.

That small, damaged stretch of Summit, between Prospect Street and Belleview, has been closed since December 2015.

Heavy rains had washed out soil supporting that portion of the street at the bottom of the incline, while Alton also was experiencing flooding Downtown. Officials, though, were unable to get the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse the city for the damage on Summit because they said it was not flood-related, delaying the repair process, Barnhart said.

Despite happening nearly 15 months ago, condition of the “Summit slide” fortunately has not deteriorated considerably since then to affect the repairs, Barnhart said.

An engineer’s inspection of the site revealed there would be more to the project than just stabilizing the earth by Summit, filling in the hole underneath the street surface and repairing the brickwork — if the remedy is done correctly, Barnhart said.

“This will encompass all of our concerns,” he said of the broader-planned project. “The destabilization of soil on the bluff puts additional pressure on our (storm water) sewer main that runs through the area, from Bluff to Belleview and to Foulds Avenue and Mamie Street. It is (located) toward the north and runs down the center of Summit. The slide (mudslide) on the south side of Summit encroaches on the sewer line.”

If the city does not stabilize the earth and replace part of an 18-inch-diameter sewer line, it could fail, affecting numerous Christian Hill residences and cause the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to fine the city, he said.

The project also will include opening up manholes in the area and sanitary sewer upgrades.

“We had to plan a lot of options, we made safety a big thing,” he said.

Barnhart said the contract will require the project to be completed within 90 days, weather permitting, but only should take 30 to 60 days. Assuming the City Council votes to accept the bid, and the city determines where the money will come from for the project, he said work could start within the next two to three weeks.